1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus management system, a printing apparatus management method, and a printing apparatus management program.
2. Related Art
Sometimes, it is intended that a printer is (printing apparatus) installed in a public place (for example, a lodging house or a shop) and the printer is permitted to be used for only specific users (for example, users in the lodging house or the shop). In this case, when cost associated with consumption supplies such as ink or print sheets is taken into consideration, it is necessary for an owner (also called a manager) of the printer to strictly manage the printer so that only users permitted to use the printer use the printer.
As a method of managing the printer, a technique for inputting a predetermined personal identification number of a user at the time of using a printer was known.
There was also known a technique for authenticating a user permitted to use a printer by distributing an IC card storing identification information and allowing the printer to read the identification information recorded in the IC card before use of the printer.
There was also known a public printing system in which computer terminals operated by users, a center server managing the printable number corresponding to the prepaid price and the printable number based on an authentication key, and a print server (and printer) installed in a shop are connected to each other through a network (see JP-A-2006-134045). In the public printing system, when the user inputs the authentication key issued at the time of paying a use fee to the computer terminal, the computer terminal queries the printable number to the center server by use of the authentication key. When the number of printing is within the printable number, a printing work is created and the printing work is transmitted to the print server.
The above-mentioned known techniques have problems as follows. That is, when the personal identification number is used as in the above description, the personal identification number may be revealed to users other than the permitted users. Then, the personal identification number is useless. In addition, when the personal identification is frequently changed and notified to the permitted users or a watchman that watches illegal use is posted near a printer, an increase in management cost of the printer is caused. In order to realize authentication by use of an IC card owned by a user, a reader/writer device for reading information of the IC card or updating the information of the IC card has to be mounted (or connected) on a printer. However, the reader/writer device of the IC card is costly. For this reason, the authentication method based on the information of the IC card described above also causes the management cost of a printer to increase.
In JP-A-2006-134045, the center server just authenticates the computer terminal to be operated by a user and a direct operation of the printer in the place where the print server (printer) is installed is not controlled. For this reason, the use of the printer in the public place where the printer is installed cannot be managed and restricted. Additionally, in JP-A-2006-134045, the public printing system is very expensive in realization, in that the public printing system includes the computer terminals of users, the center server, the print server, and the printer in the shop, and the network connecting these apparatuses is large-scale.